Who's going to Ballarat?

[azabob]

I still need a lot of convincing on the Ballarat partnership, particularly given that we give up two games at Etihad where I'm a reserved seat member.

I guess it can't get any worse than yesterday where it was dark, cold, raining and the game looked like on tv like a VFL game - and sounded like we were the away team.

Can only get better from here.

Agree on your first point. Especially since the first two Ballarat games were difficult to access and required members to buy an entry ticket plus extra for a reserved seat.

[GVGjr]

It is more than what you say. It will take a long time to try and get Ballarat people to go and watch us, especially if we aren't playing well. The people of Ballarat already have their own team they follow and it will take time to convert them. You only have to look at North who played in Hobart yesterday, only 11k showed up. People commented " well if they want a Tassie team why don't they show up to AFL games. They will show up if North was a Tassie team. It took the Hawks a few seasons to start packing out Launceston.

We have now commited to Ballarat, convinced the government to upgrade the ground, so we have to make it work. We may have to play a Victorian team there if we can't even get our own supporters to go.

The GC game earlier this year only attracted 300 more supporters. The excuses then was the pricing for members, and that Ballarat people have Saturday sports and can't make the time. This time the excuse was the timeslot for Melbourne people.

Given all of that, we have to work out a proper plan and strategy on how to get people to the game. I think it is worth pursing to build up our base in the western corridor, it won't happen overnight.

I don't quite get this logic, the turnout by Port fans was more than acceptable. Why should we expect that supporters from other Victorian teams should carry the load? This was years in the making and despite many difficult reasons with yesterday it was still a shocking endorsement of games being played there.

I get that we have to make it work but we've gone from a sell out in 2017 to two very poorly attended games in 2018.
Unless we start winning games next year I suspect 2019 might be another test for us to get people to attend games.

[bornadog]

I don't quite get this logic, the turnout by Port fans was more than acceptable. Why should we expect that supporters from other Victorian teams should carry the load? This was years in the making and despite many difficult reasons with yesterday it was still a shocking endorsement of games being played there.

I get that we have to make it work but we've gone from a sell out in 2017 to two very poorly attended games in 2018.
Unless we start winning games next year I suspect 2019 might be another test for us to get people to attend games.

I only mentioned that as a last resort. eg: GC fans didn't show up, because they don't have any.

Anyhow, Gerard on SEN said over 8500 tickets were sold, but only 6500 showed up.

[The bulldog tragician]

I still paid 35 extra for a seat even though I’m a social club member with a reserved seat at Etihad. Not sure that’s fair.

[Twodogs]

I only mentioned that as a last resort. eg: GC fans didn't show up, because they don't have any.

Anyhow, Gerard on SEN said over 8500 tickets were sold, but only 6500 showed up.

I thought that you may have meant we could get another Victorian team to play Port up there.

[Ozza]

I still paid 35 extra for a seat even though I’m a social club member with a reserved seat at Etihad. Not sure that’s fair.

No. Its pretty ordinary.
I get it that they can't accommodate all the members into the stadium at Ballarat. In fact they couldn't even accommodate all of the social club if they wanted to go. But surely we can do better than charging social club members $35 a seat if they are making the journey. I doubt many social club members (myself included) who are a group of 4 (for example) - are jumping out of their skins to travel the 3 hour round trip and pay $140 for their seats.

[The bulldog tragician]

No. Its pretty ordinary.
I get it that they can't accommodate all the members into the stadium at Ballarat. In fact they couldn't even accommodate all of the social club if they wanted to go. But surely we can do better than charging social club members $35 a seat if they are making the journey. I doubt many social club members (myself included) who are a group of 4 (for example) - are jumping out of their skins to travel the 3 hour round trip and pay $140 for their seats.

Yep. Fitting everyone in probably isn’t a major concern!

[bornadog]

I still paid 35 extra for a seat even though I’m a social club member with a reserved seat at Etihad. Not sure that’s fair.

I think it is fair.

Your social club and reserved seat are costed out for the number of games played at Etihad, so I don't see the problem? It is not as if you have paid for a seat at Mars in your normal Etihad reserved seating.

[Sedat]

I think it is fair.

Your social club and reserved seat are costed out for the number of games played at Etihad, so I don't see the problem? It is not as if you have paid for a seat at Mars in your normal Etihad reserved seating.

If you want to see sub 7k crowds, it is fair. If you actually want to incentivise your constituents to embrace the new journey, you'd charge a whole lot less for reserved seats (basically a nominal fee), and you would also allow walk-up members to scan in without charge and without having to reserve a ticket and line Ticketmaster's pockets.

Ballarat games are fantastic for some but they are also an impost for others - we need to embrace ALL our members and make them feel part of the excitement instead of using it as an opportunity to sling them another $35 on top of their already expensive reserve seat memberships.

On a side note, what Ballarat specific marketing and engagement are we doing to get the locals and local businesses excited? I spend a lot of time in the city and for both games this year there has been bugger-all appearance of any engagement with the locals - it's like a fly-in fly out exercise, which is not going to get us anywhere long term. What are our KPI's for increased memberships and increased sponsorships from the region, and who is accountable for these KPI's? Let's get serious about the region and bring our members along for the ride.

[bornadog]

If you want to see sub 7k crowds, it is fair. If you actually want to incentivise your constituents to embrace the new journey, you'd charge a whole lot less for reserved seats (basically a nominal fee), and you would also allow walk-up members to scan in without charge and without having to reserve a ticket and line Ticketmaster's pockets.

Ballarat games are fantastic for some but they are also an impost for others - we need to embrace ALL our members and make them feel part of the excitement instead of using it as an opportunity to sling them another $35 on top of their already expensive reserve seat memberships.

On a side note, what Ballarat specific marketing and engagement are we doing to get the locals and local businesses excited? I spend a lot of time in the city and for both games this year there has been bugger-all appearance of any engagement with the locals - it's like a fly-in fly out exercise, which is not going to get us anywhere long term. What are our KPI's for increased memberships and increased sponsorships from the region, and who is accountable for these KPI's? Let's get serious about the region and bring our members along for the ride.

We have a full time office in Ballarat with Brett Goodes heading it up and doing lots of work with locals.

You can roll up and buy a ticket, plus the reserved seating was actually discounted for Sunday, I think it was something like $60 for the first game. I don't know what the price should be, what I am saying is your Etihad seat doesn't get you into Mars, MCG or anywhere else.

[Sedat]

We have a full time office in Ballarat with Brett Goodes heading it up and doing lots of work with locals.

You can roll up and buy a ticket, plus the reserved seating was actually discounted for Sunday, I think it was something like $60 for the first game. I don't know what the price should be, what I am saying is your Etihad seat doesn't get you into Mars, MCG or anywhere else.

I'm aware of our office and that Brett is in charge, but what exactly is being done to court the locals? I'm seeing nothing tangible - maybe we are doing a tonne of work behind the scenes but it's certainly not apparent what we're doing. There should be KPI's in terms of sponsorship $$ generated from the area and increased membership numbers from the area that Brett needs to be held accountable to, and these numbers need to be re-forcasted every year with projected growth year on year.

[bornadog]

I'm aware of our office and that Brett is in charge, but what exactly is being done to court the locals? I'm seeing nothing tangible - maybe we are doing a tonne of work behind the scenes but it's certainly not apparent what we're doing. There should be KPI's in terms of sponsorship $$ generated from the area and increased membership numbers from the area that Brett needs to be held accountable to, and these numbers need to be re-forcasted every year with projected growth year on year.

Fair to say we don't know.

[Sedat]

Fair to say we don't know.

We should. It's not rocket science to break down the Ballarat portion of revenue generated from both memberships and sponsorships. Look forward to seeing this basic level of detail in the annual report.

[The bulldog tragician]

If you want to see sub 7k crowds, it is fair. If you actually want to incentivise your constituents to embrace the new journey, you'd charge a whole lot less for reserved seats (basically a nominal fee), and you would also allow walk-up members to scan in without charge and without having to reserve a ticket and line Ticketmaster's pockets.

Ballarat games are fantastic for some but they are also an impost for others - we need to embrace ALL our members and make them feel part of the excitement instead of using it as an opportunity to sling them another $35 on top of their already expensive reserve seat memberships.

On a side note, what Ballarat specific marketing and engagement are we doing to get the locals and local businesses excited? I spend a lot of time in the city and for both games this year there has been bugger-all appearance of any engagement with the locals - it's like a fly-in fly out exercise, which is not going to get us anywhere long term. What are our KPI's for increased memberships and increased sponsorships from the region, and who is accountable for these KPI's? Let's get serious about the region and bring our members along for the ride.

Yes, this is what I meant. Even for general admission to stand in the outer - despite being a SC member - there was a fee of $5. In the early stages I’d think it’s more important to pack the stadium out for atmosphere and appearance than slug members - there were seats selling on ticketmaster for $65 in the grandstand even the day before - what is the point when the crowd is so poor and the weather forecast so dire? Cost has to be a factor in people voting not to come.

[I'm Not Bitter Anymore!]

I went today. It was as challenging a day at the footy I've ever had. Rivalled the old days at Waverley and certainly worse than the worst weather conditions ever dished up at Whitten Oval.

I didn't wear the rightwet weather gear, got soaked through and by the time the final siren went it was 6 degrees "feels like" -2 and I was actually concerned for my health. Stripped off to my jocks, put the heater on in the car and drove home.

Wish I had done that my clothes were still wet today